Tracking events and trends in Israel, the U.S., Russia and throughout the Epicenter (the Middle East & North Africa)

OMINOUS SIGNAL: NETANYAHU & BARAK WARN SANCTIONS AREN’T WORKING

“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that sanctions against Iran had not yet worked, adding that Tehran’s nuclear pursuits made it the most ‘irresponsible’ country in the world,” reports Haaretz. “‘Iran is the most irresponsible country in the world and it is breaking all the rules,’ Netanyahu said during a one-day visit to Cyprus.” Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak echoed Netanyahu’s comments during a meeting with Japan’s defense minister. “These (current) sanctions … might not suffice to compel the Iranian leadership to take decisions so we feel that there is still a need for more effective and paralysing sanctions on Iran,” said Barak. The Japanese government, like the Obama administration, is urging Israel not to consider preemptive military strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities. But the comments by Netanyahu and Barak provide an ominous signal. If the Israeli government does not believe even the newly enhanced international economic sanctions will be sufficient to stop Iran from building the Bomb, then Israel will be more inclined to take military action….sooner rather than later.